The president and Zanu-PF are spreading their campaign of violent intimidation to all parts of the country, while state bodies work to rig this week’s presidential ballot

The two faces of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's presidential election run-off were clearly visible yesterday in the streets of Harare. One was represented by the 84-year-old president grinning at voters from posters plastered all over the city, the other by the state-organised violence that his rhetoric of war has provoked.

The symbol of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party is a clenched fist. As Friday's vote approached, the fist was bared, the mood dark. "It is like a rabid dog that has gone crazy, snapping at everything that moves," said one voter.

Mugabe, who is fighting for his political survival after coming second to Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in the first round of the elections in March, has a dynamic public relations expert working for him.

A slick publicity campaign run by Sharon Mugabe, a distant relative, includes images of pretty girls and young men - with